So the Academy Award nominations were announced this morning, and as every year I had the TV on, munching my breakfast, and followed along as they were read out (see the full list of nominees at the bottom of this post).

And as every year, the greatest noise will probably be made about what got “snubbed” and I suppose my post will be no different. But let me first point out that I saw 6 of the 8 best picture nominees and count those 6 as among the best films I saw this year (and The Big Short and The Revenant were already on top of my “movies-I-gotta-see” list before today’s announcements). I’m particularly happy to see Brooklyn and Room, two “small” movies I absolutely loved and whose Oscar fortunes were very much in doubt, make it. “The Martian” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” are two of the most exciting and fun movie going experiences I had this year (and how cool is it two see two big science fiction films do so well at the Oscars, and two others, “Ex Machina” and some little sci-fi flic about some kind of force awakening, which I also loved no matter my cheek, do pretty well too!) “Spotlight” is an excellent film that expertly infuriated me, and “Bridge of Spies” moved me to not one but two blog posts about my Cold War Berlin Wall experiences.

So no complaints about what made the list. But a big sigh about at least one that didn’t: Carol. Carol is “imho” one of the best pictures of the year. And for it to miss Best Picture and Best Director seems really unfortunate (Todd Haynes really can’t catch a break with the Academy, can he…). What makes this circumstance truly head-scratching is that Carol got 6 nominations. It isn’t unprecedented but still highly unusual for a film to get so many nominations but no picture and director noms. Especially in these years of an expanded Best Picture field that allows for up to 10 films to be nominated, it seems strange that a film that has so much support for its acting (2 noms), writing, cinematography, music and costumes couldn’t find enough support to make it into best picture. Even without a best picture nomination, it equals or betters the nomination tally of most of the best picture nominees, with only three films receiving more nominations in all categories.

And then the happy surprises. Best Director for the very deserving but unexpected Lenny Abrahamson for “Room”. Screenplay and visual effects nominations for the superb “Ex Machina”. A German language film in the live action short category (not in Best Foreign Film though, although Germany’s “Labyrinth of Lies” had made the short list). And who would have guessed back in May, no matter how good the reviews, that a sci-fi dystopian action film like “Mad Max: Fury Road” would get the second most nominations of all at the supposedly staid Oscars, including nods for picture and director. It’s pretty cool.

Another happy left-field surprise was the inclusion of the wonderful Brazilian independent animated feature “Boy and the World”. I saw it when it played briefly in theaters and hoped it might make the cut as it is a very visually bold and idiosyncratic film, movingly accessible as well as formally bizarre.

Not so good. “I’ll See You in My Dreams” wasn’t chosen. In stead the “surprise out there nominee would appear to be “Manta Ray” from the documentary “Racing Extinction”. Well, at least I wasn’t the only one surprised. But if I had known earlier “Manta Ray” was written by the same composer who was already previously nominated for his song for another documentary “Chasing Ice”, I would have included it in my article (easy to say now, right?).

At least I can say that I wrote at length about the other four songs nominated (including the other song from a documentary – how’s that for a statistic, two songs from documentaries in one year, when before today there had been only two songs from documentaries nominated in Oscar history), although if I am going to give myself points for that, I should also make deductions for underestimating the chances of “Writing’s on the Wall”.

So as far as my little attempt at Oscar prognostication, I’d say that is pretty weak tea leaves reading.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
• “Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
• “Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
Music by J. Ralph and Lyric by Antony Hegarty
• “Simple Song #3” from “Youth”
Music and Lyric by David Lang
• “Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
• “Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre”
Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith